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on Education |
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Issue of 2010‒09‒25
23 papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Sajeda Amin; S. Chandrasekhar |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses gender equity in parents‘ educational investments in children in a context of rising school attendance in rural Bangladesh. Our premise is that in addition to factors such as school enrollment and aspects of school quality, attention should focus on household level private investments in education. By private investments we mean time allocated to studying at home and access to private tutoring after school. Using data from the nationally representative 2005 Bangladesh Adolescent Survey, we analyze correlates of time spent in school, studying outside school, and work, using a data set on time-use patterns of school-going children and adolescents. We find that time spent in work varies inversely with the amount of time spent studying at home, while time at school shows no such association. We find support for two hypotheses regarding household influences on education. First, time spent in school is insensitive to factors such as poverty and gender. Second, time spent studying outside school is strongly influenced by household decisions that favor boys, who appear to have about 30 minutes more discretionary study time than girls. [Working Paper No. 17] |
| Keywords: | gender, parents, education, investments, bangladesh, private investment, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2837&r=edu |
| By: | Sanat Kaul |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the prevailing policy environment to evaluate its efficacy in ensuring that India is successfully able to address these challenges in the education sector. Given the well established constraints on public funding of education, the role of the private sector specially in the provision of higher education and technical training has been highlighted. The paper suggests that India needs to have a proactive demand based policy towards private higher education including foreign institutions/universities desirous of setting up campus in India or entering into joint-ventures. This has to be combined with the establishment of a regulatory mechanism that ensures that students’ welfare is not compromised and quality standards are maintained. [ICRIER Working Paper 179] |
| Keywords: | policy, environment, education, technical training, foreign institutions, welfare |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2871&r=edu |
| By: | Neil Shephard (Nuffield College and Oxford-Mann Institute, Oxford University, Oxford.) |
| Abstract: | I will argue for a simpler, fairer, more fiscally responsible and flexible form of university funding and student support. This system is designed to encourage a diverse higher education sector where high quality provision can flourish. The main points of the new system are: 1. Make student financial support available to cover all tuition and a modest cost of living. 2. Allow graduates to repay according to earnings with protection for poorer graduates. 3. Call HEFCE teaching grants “scholarships” and make students aware of their value. 4. Cap the level of funded fees plus HEFCE grant at the current level. 5. Allow universities to charge deferred fees. a. When they are paid the money goes to the student’s university not to the state. These fees have no fiscal implications. b. Bring some of the cash flow from deferred fees forward by working with a bank. 6. In the long-run move to making the cost of living support simpler by a. Providing more realistic cost of living support for all students. b. Removing means-tested university bursaries for cost of living expenses. c. Removing means-tested grants to students provided by the state. This builds on England’s higher education structure. The changes are simple to implement. It would set up a stable funding structure for our universities & provide the financial support our students need. |
| Date: | 2010–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:econwp:1003&r=edu |
| By: | Rajashri Chakrabarti; Joydeep Roy |
| Abstract: | Charter schools have been one of the most important dimensions of recent school reform measures in the United States. Currently, there are more than 4,500 charter schools spread across forty U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Though there have been numerous studies on the effects of charter schools, these have mostly been confined to analyzing the effects on student achievement, student demographic composition, parental satisfaction, and the competitive effects on regular public schools. This study departs from the existing literature by investigating the effect of charter schools on enrollment in private schools. To investigate this issue empirically, we focus on the state of Michigan, where there was a significant spread of charter schools in the 1990s. Using data on private school enrollment from decennial censuses and biennial National Center for Education Statistics private school surveys, and using a fixed-effects as well as instrumental-variables strategy that exploits exogenous variation from Michigan charter law, we investigate the effect of charter school penetration on private school enrollment. We find some evidence of a decline in enrollment in private schools - but the effect is only modest in size. This finding is reasonably robust, and survives several robustness checks. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:472&r=edu |
| By: | Basanta K. Pradhan; Shalabh Kumar Singh |
| Abstract: | Even as a case can be made out for public spending on elementary education, its link with enrolment rates does not appear strong. However, once efficiency and demand-side factors are accounted for, public spending is seen to make an impact on the rate of enrolment and quality of education as measured by teacher-pupil ratio. Teacher-pupil ratio and the number of schools, in turn, are seen to have a stronger impact on the rate of enrolment in efficient states. Literacy rates as well as state domestic product were seen to have a positive influence on education. The share of public expenditure on elementary education in GDP peaked in 1990-91 but never achieved the targeted level of 6 per cent of GDP. The reforms brought a break in the growth rate of public expenditure on elementary education, from which not all the states could recover even over an extended period of time. [Working Paper No. 93] |
| Keywords: | public spending, elementary education, enrolment rates, education, elementary education, extended period |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2849&r=edu |
| By: | Usha Jayachandran |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the socio-economic determinants of school attendance in India, and the possible causes of disadvantage faced by the girl child. Based on Census data for 1981 and 1991, the determinants of inter-district variations in school attendance are explored, separately for boys and girls. A similar analysis is applied to the gender bias in school attendance. The results indicate that school attendance is positively related to school accessibility and parental education, and negatively related to poverty and household size. Interestingly, a positive association emerges between women’s labour-force participation and children’s school attendance; possible explanations of this pattern are discussed. The gender bias in school attendance declines with school accessibility and parental education, and rises with household size. Panel data analysis based on the random-effects model supports the cross-section findings. [Working Paper No. 103] |
| Keywords: | socio-economic, girl child, parental education, parental education, poverty, household |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2866&r=edu |
| By: | Calo-Blanco Aitor (Pablo de Olavide University; Ivie); Villar Notario Antonio (Pablo de Olavide University; Ivie) |
| Abstract: | This working paper analyzes the performance of the Spanish educational system according to the 2006 PISA report, focussing on the equality of opportunity. The basic idea is that a good educational system should produce outcomes that depend basically on the students effort and not on the students external circumstances (parental background here). We present a simple formula to estimate the inequality of opportunity and analyze empirically the behaviour of Spain and its constituent regions, both with respect to quality (mean scores) and with respect to the inequality of opportunity. We find that Spain performs better than the European average in terms of equality of opportunity and worse in terms of quality. We also find large and systematic differences between the Spanish regions |
| Keywords: | Quality of education, equality of opportunity, PISA report, regional disparities |
| Date: | 2010–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fbb:wpaper:20104&r=edu |
| By: | Rajashri Chakrabarti; Joydeep Roy |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of constraints in a Tiebout framework applied to school finance reforms. We use data from Michigan, which enacted a comprehensive school finance reform in 1994 that, in effect, ended local discretion over school spending. This scenario affords us a unique opportunity to study the implications of imposing limits on local government’s control over the quality of local public goods. We find that the reform was successful in overturning existing trends toward increased disparities. However, the reform also constrained the highest spending districts and was associated with negative effects on their subsequent educational outcomes. These results survive several sensitivity checks. Going behind the “black box” to look at whether the reform affected incentives and responses, we find that loss of discretion appeared to act as a strong disincentive to high-spending districts and, more generally, across the board. The performance improvements of the lowest spending districts were likely related to relative increases in spending rather than higher effort. This same finding is corroborated by results from an alternative strategy, which exploits differences in the nature of incentives faced by districts in more competitive areas versus those in less competitive areas. |
| Keywords: | Education - Economic aspects ; Public schools ; Reward (Psychology) |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:471&r=edu |
| By: | Franz Buscha (Centre of Employment Research, University of Westminster, London, UK); Anna Conte (Strategic Interaction Group, Max-Planck-Institut für Ökonomik, Jena, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between educational attainment and truancy. Using data from the Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales, we estimate the causal impact that truancy has on educational attainment at age 16. Problematic is that both truancy and attainment are measured as ordered responses requiring a bivariate ordered probit model to account for the potential endogeneity of truancy. Furthermore, we extent the 'naïve' bivariate ordered probit estimator to include mixed effects which allows us to estimate the distribution of the truancy effect on educational attainment. This estimator offers a more flexible parametric setting to recover the causal effect of truancy on education and results suggest that the impact of truancy on education is indeed more complex than implied by the naïve estimator. |
| Keywords: | educational attainment, truancy, bivariate ordered probit, mixed effects |
| JEL: | I20 C35 C51 |
| Date: | 2010–09–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2010-062&r=edu |
| By: | Bharadwaj, Prashant; Eberhard, Juan; Neilson, Christopher |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the causal relationship between birth weight and school achievement among children in grades 1 through 8. We find that birth weight significantly affects performance on both math and language test scores in school. Children with higher birth weight do better - a 10% increase in birth weight improves performance in math by nearly 0.05 standard deviations in 1st grade. Children who are born at a weight less than 1500 grams (very low birth weight) have scores in math that are 0.15 standard deviations less in 1st grade. We exploit repeated observations on children to show that birth weight has a persistent effect that does not deteriorate as children advance through grades (upto 8th grade). Children with greater birth weight are also less likely to have ever repeated a grade. The causal link is identified by using a twins estimator - we collected birth weight and basic demographic data on all twins born in Chile between 1992-2000 and match these twin pairs to administrative school records between 2002-2008. There are no differences in school attendance by birth weight, suggesting that missing school perhaps due to health problems is likely not a channel via which test score differentials arise. |
| Keywords: | school achievement, birth weight |
| Date: | 2010–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:1562347&r=edu |
| By: | Francisco Gallego |
| Abstract: | Public schools in Chile receive a per-student subsidy depending on enrollment, and are managed by local governments that operate under soft budget constraints. In this paper, we study the effects of this system on per-student expenditures. Per-student expenditures on rural areas are 30% higher than in urban areas. We find that about 75% of this difference is due to the fact that rural public schools are significantly smaller and thus do not benefit from economies of scale. Besides, we also show that in our preferred estimates about 50% of the students in rural areas could be moved to schools that could exploit economies of scale—i.e., these students could attend bigger schools traveling at most an hour a day in total. We show that even if we use conservative average speed rates or control for transportation, utility and infrastructure costs, there is a sizeable share of the students that could be consolidated. We argue that local governments that have soft budget constraints do not consolidate these schools giving the existing potential because of political factors: closing schools is harmful for mayors in electoral terms. Consistent with this claim, we find that a decrease in the degree of political competition in areas with better access to non-voucher transfers from the central government (i.e. with softer budget constraints) decreases the extent of the inefficiency. |
| Keywords: | School size, rural schools, consolidation, Chile, education decentralization, political economy, soft budget constraints |
| JEL: | I22 H52 H75 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ioe:doctra:375&r=edu |
| By: | Luis García Núñez (Departamento de Economía- Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) |
| Abstract: | During the past decades, the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (known as PUCP) has been giving student loans to some of its students with satisfactory academic performance but who face certain economic problems which might interrupt their studies. Although this program was created more than forty years ago, its results have not been rigorously evaluated. This document attempts to assess to what extent the program has benefited students. Because the collected data come from academic and social records, the completion of this task requires using modern techniques specifically designed to work with non experimental data. After estimating by propensity score matching with multiple treatments, I find a statistically significant impact of this program on the time a student employs to complete the course of study at PUCP (measured in semesters) only when a student was awarded with a loan for 6 semesters or more. That effect is not significantly different from zero when the loan lasts less than 6 semesters. Similar results were found when I analyzed the impact on the probability of degree completion of student loans, where students with loan were more likely to meet all graduation requirements by 6 years and a half after they start studying at PUCP. Again this effect was significant only when the student participates in the program for six semesters or more. However, the impact on that probability was small. |
| Keywords: | Student Loans, Matching, Treatment Effect |
| JEL: | C13 C14 C21 I22 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pcp:pucwps:wp00287&r=edu |
| By: | Hagen, Jens; Omar Mahmoud, Toman; Trofimenko, Natalia |
| Abstract: | Losing a parent is a trauma that has consequences for human capital formation. Does it matter at what age this trauma occurs? Using longitudinal data from the Kagera region in Tanzania that span thirteen years from 1991-2004, we find considerable impact heterogeneity across age at bereavement, but less so for the death of opposite-sex parents. In terms of long-term health status as measured by body height, children who lose their same-sex parent before teenage years are hit hardest. Regarding years of formal education attained in young adulthood, boys whose fathers die before adolescence suffer the most. Maternal bereavement does not fit into this pattern as it affects educational attainment of boys and girls in a similar way. The generally strong interaction between age at parental death and sex of the late parent suggests that the preferences of the surviving parent partly protect same-sex children from orphanhoods detrimental effects on human capital accumulation. -- |
| Keywords: | orphans,health,education,timing of parental death,child development,HIV/AIDS |
| JEL: | I31 J19 C14 C23 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec10:33&r=edu |
| By: | Francisco Gallego (Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.); Carlos Rodríguez (Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.); Enzo Sauma (Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.) |
| Abstract: | Public schools in Chile receive a per-student subsidy depending on enrollment, and are managed by local governments that operate under soft budget constraints. In this paper, we study the effects of this system on per-student expenditures. Per-student expenditures on rural areas are 30% higher than in urban areas. We find that about 75% of this difference is due to the fact that rural public schools are significantly smaller and thus do not benefit from economies of scale. Besides, we also show that in our preferred estimates about 50% of the students in rural areas could be moved to schools that could exploit economies of scale – i.e., these students could attend bigger schools traveling at most an hour day a day in total. We show that even if we use conservative average speed rates or control for transportation, utility and infrastructure costs, there is a sizeable share of students that could be consolidated. We argue that local governments that have soft budget constraints do not consolidate these schools giving the existing potential because of political factors: closing schools is harmful for mayors in electoral terms. Consistent with this claim, we find that a decrease in the degree of political competition in areas with better access to non-voucher transfers from the central government (i.e. with softer budget constraints) decreases the extent of the inefficiency. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ioe:clabwp:8&r=edu |
| By: | Garrouste, Christelle; Kozovska, Kornelia; Arjona Perez, Elena |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between education and long-term unemployment when considering regional economic differences and other relevant variables at the individual and at the local level, using data from the 2004-2006 EU-SILC (11 countries). The analysis has been run using both a binary logit model and a binary scobit model. Our results suggest that the probability of an individual to be in long-term unemployment decreases with her educational level. There is a decrease in returns to education after the age of 40, which confirms the assumption of an obsolescence of skills defended in the human capital literature. With regard to the regional settings, younger workers (20-30) and older workers (50-65) tend to benefit more from the dynamics offered by highly competitive regions. |
| Keywords: | unemployment differentials; education and long-term unemployment; regional competitiveness |
| JEL: | J01 J64 J24 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25073&r=edu |
| By: | Christoph Braun |
| Abstract: | This paper studies a Ramsey optimal taxation model with human capital in an infi nite-horizon setting. Contrary to Jones, Manuelli, and Rossi (1997), the human capital production function does not include the current stock of human capital as a production factor. As a result, the return to human capital, namely labor income, does not vanish in equilibrium. In a stationary state, the household underinvests in human capital relative to the fi rst best, i.e., education is distorted. Human capital is eff ectively taxed. The optimal tax scheme prescribes making the cost of education not fully tax-deductible. |
| Keywords: | Optimal taxation; human capital; Ramsey approach |
| JEL: | H21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0202&r=edu |
| By: | Francesco Lissoni; Jacques Mairesse; Fabio Montobbio; Michele Pezzoni |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the determinants of scientific productivity (number of articles and journals’ impact factor) for a panel of about 3600 French and Italian academic physicists active in 2004-05. Endogeneity problems concerning promotion and productivity are addressed by specifying a generalized Tobit model, in which a selection probit equation accounts for the individual scientist’s probability of promotion to her present rank, and a productivity regression estimates the effects of age, gender, cohort of entry, and collaboration characteristics, conditional on the scientist’s rank. We find that the size and international nature of collaborative projects and co-authors’ past productivity have very significant impacts on current productivity, while age and gender, and past productivity are also influential determinants of both productivity and probability of promotion. Furthermore we show that the stop-and-go policies of recruitment and promotion, typical of the Italian and French centralized academic systems of governance, can leave significant long-lasting cohort effects on research productivity. |
| JEL: | I23 I28 J24 J45 O31 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16341&r=edu |
| By: | Kannan, Srinivasan |
| Abstract: | Emergence of “Glass ceiling” like phenomena in the minds of professionals doing research in a multidisciplinary subject needs to be studied. For an example, computational neurosciences(CNS) comprises of neurology, cognitive science, psychology, computer science, physics, mathematics, information technology, radiology, anthropology, sociology, and biology. When a specialist doing research in a multidisciplinary science like computational neuroscience, know less about other disciplines. This at times leads to tension among the members of the multidisciplinary group. This may create an environment where some members feel excluded. This may also lead to a power structure among different professionals. In case of CNS, the biological scientists feel the computational and engineering sciences may use their mathematical power to control them. On the other hand the engineering scientists feel they need to learn more about biology to understand CNS. The highly technical medical specialist such as Electro physiologists were also feeling like the biologists. As computational neurosciences gaining more importance, it is important to understand the interaction among the scientists from different disciplines and its effect on the development of discipline. The present paper is an attempt to study the dynamics of the members of the multidisciplinary group, who have done their short course on CNS. |
| Keywords: | Multidisciplinary Research; Computational Neuroscience; interaction; education; research |
| JEL: | A3 I23 D89 A29 D40 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25090&r=edu |
| By: | K. Sundaram |
| Abstract: | Against the backdrop of policy of reservation of seats in Higher Education for the Other Backward Castes in India, this paper examines two inter-related yet distinct issues: (i) the use of economic criteria for assessing the backwardness of different social groups and (ii) assessment of fairness of access to higher education of an identified “backward†social group. On an analysis of the NSS 55th Round Surveys for 1999-2000 we show that on a range of economic criteria there is a clear hierarchy across (essentially) caste-based social groups with the Scheduled Castes (in Urban India) and the Scheduled Tribes (in Rural India) at the bottom, the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in the middle and the non-SC/ST Others at the top. However, for the poor among them, there is more of a continuum across caste-groups with surprisingly small differences between the OBCs and the non-SC/ST Others. [Working Paper No. 151] |
| Keywords: | Backward Castes, economic,Scheduled Tribes, Rural India, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2839&r=edu |
| By: | Todd Gabe; Jaison R. Abel; Adrienne Ross; Kevin Stolarick |
| Abstract: | This study identifies clusters of U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas with similar knowledge traits. These groups—ranging from Making Regions, characterized by knowledge about manufacturing, to Thinking Regions, noted for knowledge about the arts, humanities, information technology, and commerce—can be used by analysts and policymakers for the purposes of regional benchmarking or comparing the types of programs and infrastructure available to support closely related economic activities. In addition these knowledge-based clusters help explain the types of regions that have levels of economic development that exceed, or fall short of, other places with similar amounts of college attainment. Regression results show that Engineering, Enterprising, and Building Regions are associated with higher levels of productivity and earnings per capita, while Teaching, Understanding, Working, and Comforting Regions have lower levels of economic development. |
| Keywords: | Regional economics ; Productivity ; Manufacturing industries ; Education - Economic aspects ; Professional employees |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:470&r=edu |
| By: | Mark M. Pitt (Brown University); Mark Rosenzweig (Department of Economics, Yale University); Nazmul Hassan (Dhaka University) |
| Abstract: | We use a model of human capital investment and activity choice to explain facts describing gender differentials in the levels and returns to human capital investments. These include the higher return to and level of schooling, the small effect of healthiness on wages, and the large effect of healthiness on schooling for females relative to males. The model incorporates gender differences in the level and responsiveness of brawn to nutrition in a Roy-economy setting in which activities reward skill and brawn differentially. Empirical evidence from rural Bangladesh provides support for the model and the importance of the distribution of brawn. |
| Keywords: | brawn, health, schooling, gender |
| JEL: | O1 J1 J2 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:989&r=edu |
| By: | Thomas K. Bauer; Matthias Vorell |
| Abstract: | Using a matched employer-employee panel dataset for Germany, we analyze the external eff ects of education on individual wages. Following the basic framework of Moretti (2004), we allow spillover eff ects to occur both within a specifi c fi rm and a specifi c region rather than analyzing spillover eff ects only on a regional level. Controlling for individual- and fi rm-specifi c fi xed eff ects and using an instrumental variable strategy, our results confi rm the existence of positive but small external eff ects of human capital. Positive spillover eff ects within fi rms occur only for the group of high-skilled workers. |
| Keywords: | External eff ects; human capital; employer-employee matched data |
| JEL: | C23 D62 J31 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0195&r=edu |
| By: | Doan, Tinh; John, Gibson |
| Abstract: | A common phenomenon about transition economies is that the return to schooling improves as economic reform progresses. Existing research suggests that Vietnam is not an exception to the pattern. However, the rate of return in period from 1992 to 1998 is still relatively low, below 5 percent, relative to that of the world and other transitional economies. And it is hard to see a clear trend in the current literature due to different methods applied and sets of variables controlled in the earnings equations (see Appendix B). The low returns may result from the gradual economic reforms applied in Vietnam, whilst in Eastern European countries the “Big Bang” transformation was conducted. Therefore, to test whether the return to schooling in Vietnam is rising and reaches other transitional economies’ rate of returns, we re-examine the trend in the rate of return to schooling in Vietnam over the 1998-2008 period, when the reforms have had a longer time to have an effect. We apply the OLS and Heckman selection estimator (Maximum Likelihood approach) and find that the return has increased quickly during the later economic reform but its pace has slowed down when the return reached the global average rate of returns at somewhere between 9 and 10 percent. |
| Keywords: | economic transition; returns to schooling; Vietnam |
| JEL: | J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2010–04–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:24986&r=edu |